The Jessica Daniel books are currently on hiatus.

I was due to be in Manchester in the spring of 2020 to research, photograph, and generally plan the next book or three in the series. This trip was cancelled for somewhat obvious reasons. I haven’t been in the city since 2018.

I have never lived in Manchester itself but always tried to make the city a part of the Jessica series as if it was a character. It is impossible to do this when I haven’t been there in a while. This is especially true with how much has changed through the pandemic.

The earliest I will be able to visit is spring 2023, though that is not fixed. It then takes time to plot and write a book.

Even past that, I do not have a publisher for any further Jessica books. That’s not to say one wouldn’t be interested if and when I have something – but there are many moving parts involved in producing a book.

In short, I do not know when the next Jessica book will come out. I don’t want to make promises regarding timelines, because I do not want to disappoint people who have faithfully supported the series. When I know what is going on, I will update this post.

Thanks for reading,
Kerry

A CRY IN THE NIGHT (JESSICA DANIEL 15)

Samuel is fourteen years old. He lives with his mother in a Manchester flat, goes to school, plays on his computer, reads books and likes the same things that most other teenagers do.

He’s also blind.

And he’s the only witness when his mother is attacked in their own home late one night.

With his hopes hung firmly on her and only his witness statement to go on, DI Jessica Daniel is facing an uphill battle to begin with – and that’s before an unidentified man with a ropey tattoo shows up in a gutter with his head kicked in.

Something strange is happening in Jessica’s team. Someone close to her has a secret – and when it comes out, everything is going to change.

THE UNLUCKY ONES (JESSICA DANIEL 14)

A man who survived being drowned ends up in Manchester’s canal. Someone who was hit by a car is shoved in front of DC Archie Davey’s patrol vehicle.

Killers generally aren’t a happy bunch but this particular one seems to have a problem with second chances.

Luckily for DI Jessica Daniel, things are looking up. She’s been assigned to work on the most crime-free estate in the city and she’s back living with her best friend.

Things could not be hunky-dorier.

That is unless there’s a sinister reason why the estate is so free of trouble…

SILENT SUSPECT (JESSICA DANIEL 13)

It started with a phone call. Just one word – ‘Jessica’ – and now Detective Inspector Jessica Daniel has a big problem.

Her missing friend, Bex, called from a battered seaside payphone and yet, by the time Jessica arrived, there was nobody there.

One man claims he can help – but then he turns up on a beach stabbed to death.

Jessica believes someone must be framing her. Someone who is always a step ahead. When she finds a boy whose tattoo matches Bex’s, she becomes more desperate than ever for answers. But, with the police growing more suspicious, Jessica doesn’t have long to find Bex before she becomes the prime suspect for a murder.

With more than her career at stake, can Jessica clear her name – and find her friend – before it’s too late for them both?

EYE FOR AN EYE (JESSICA DANIEL 12)

Seventeen years ago, Damian Walker abducted five women because the voices in his head told him to. Now he has been declared sane and is about to be released back onto Manchester’s streets with a new identity.

But within hours, there is another attack similar to his previous ones. Walker has proof it’s not him – but is he reliable, and, if so, who is trying to frame him?

DI Jessica Daniel and her chief are given a parallel task to the main investigation: Keep an eye on Walker – but that’s not all Jessica has to do.

Rock star Blaine Banner is playing a series of homecoming gigs but is convinced someone’s trying to kill him, while a bride-to-be is picketing the police station, demanding someone finds her missing fiancé.

All the while, faces from Jessica’s past are watching and waiting. Someone wants a word…

NOTHING BUT TROUBLE (JESSICA DANIEL 11)

Niall O’Brien is a veteran living on the edge of a rundown estate, refusing to sell his house to developers. He’s the only remaining resident, alone and frightened by a series of break-ins. He’s been threatening to shoot the next intruder but he can’t be serious…what if the next person through the door is a police officer trying to help?

Elsewhere, on a bright Manchester morning, a vehicle screeches across a junction and wipes out a prison van. Two prisoners run for it, leaving the police to track them down.

They don’t have long to wait.

Hours later, one of the escapees is hanged from a motorway bridge. Was he broken out solely to be killed, or is there something deeper going on?

Meanwhile, someone’s conning pensioners out of their savings and there are rumours that the bareknuckle British middleweight title fight is coming to the city. DI Jessica Daniel fears finding herself in the middle of an all-out war, not knowing the biggest threat might come from a frightened pensioner.

FOR RICHER, FOR POORER (JESSICA DANIEL 10)

Three houses have been burgled in five weeks. The robbers barge in through the back, disable any way to contact the outside world, and then ransack everything – before distributing the stolen cash to local charities.

It might be robbing from the rich to give to the poor – but DI Jessica Daniel is not a happy bunny. The new DCI has a whiteboard with far too many things on the ‘unsolved’ side and he wants the burglars found. Doesn’t he know she has other things to do?

There’s a lottery winner who’s gone bankrupt, the homeless teenager she’s taken in, the botched drugs raid, a trip to London with DC Archie Davey, and a man-mountain Serbian with a missing wife who’s been pimping out young women.

All the while, someone’s watching from the wings and waiting for Jessica to mess up. Officers are being pensioned off and booted out – with a certain DI Daniel firmly in their sights.

SCARRED FOR LIFE (JESSICA DANIEL 9)

DI Jessica Daniel is not having a good week. Her wallet’s been nicked, the refurbished incident room is already falling apart, and a new football-mad constable is driving her crazy.

But she has bigger things on her mind. A student, vaguely linked to an Olympic medallist, has been found dead; his body dumped in a wheelie bin at the back of a university building. One theory is that it could have been an induction that went wrong.

There’s also the tattooed shop raider who has her team stumped; someone attacking lone women; a chief inspector who seems to have a problem with her; and she’s started receiving threatening letters through her front door.

Worlds are colliding for Jessica – and, if she’s not careful, someone close to her might not make it out in one piece.

CROSSING THE LINE (JESSICA DANIEL 8)

READ THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS HERE.

Long before Jessica Daniel became a police officer, Manchester was once a ghost city after dark. Fear ruled as people were afraid to be out by themselves, the notorious Stretford Slasher terrorising its inhabitants.

Twenty-five years on and the media are feeling nostalgic over the milestone but Jessica has a new panic to worry about. Apparent strangers are being targeted in daylight, the attacker unworried about being caught. If only she and her team could find him…

It’s the coldest spring in memory and Jessica has old friends to look out for, plus secrets – so many secrets – that should have long been buried.

Following the events of Behind Closed Doors, Crossing The Line marks a new beginning with Season Two of the Jessica Daniel series.

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BEHIND CLOSED DOORS (JESSICA DANIEL SEASON 1, BOOK 7)

Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has barely left her house in months, isolated away from friends and colleagues. She may have given up on herself but one man is sure she still has something to offer.

DCI Jack Cole gives her a chance at redemption: An opportunity to help a neighbouring force by discovering what is going on with a reclusive community living in a stately home in the middle of nowhere.

People are going missing, turning up dead with only a vague link back to the house. But can Jessica beat her own demons in time to find out exactly what’s going on behind closed doors?

THICKER THAN WATER | THE MISSING DEAD (US title)(JESSICA DANIEL SEASON 1, BOOK 6)

When Cameron and Eleanor Sexton arrive home to find their babysitter missing but their child and property otherwise untouched, Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is sent on what she thinks is a fool’s errand to find out what happened.

But Jessica is left confused as the teenager’s body turns up in the bath of a different house seemingly at random – a puzzle which only deepens when a journalist points out that someone placed an obituary for him days before he went missing.

With one colleague leaving while another returns, plus a local businessman taking an unhealthy interest in her, Jessica turns to home to find the one person she can rely on. But is that trust misplaced?

PLAYING WITH FIRE (JESSICA DANIEL SEASON 1, BOOK 5)

Seven years ago Martin Chadwick set fire to a Manchester pub, not knowing a teenager was sleeping inside. Chadwick’s release from prison is imminent, with journalists gearing up for a good old-fashioned media lynching.

With the victim’s father telling the papers he is out for revenge, DS Jessica Daniel is left to keep an eye on Chadwick and his fiery eighteen-year-old son.

If that’s not enough to keep her occupied, a private investigator is doing a fine job sticking his oar in, it looks like there’s a schoolgirl suicide ring in operation, her car is working a little too well, and the endless rain continues to pound her northern home.

Jessica’s personal and professional life is in the balance – giving her barely enough time to focus on the person in her midst seemingly intent on burning everything to the ground.

THINK OF THE CHILDREN (JESSICA DANIEL SEASON 1, BOOK 4)

Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is first on the scene as a stolen car crashes on a misty, wet Manchester morning. The driver is dead, but the biggest shock awaits her when she discovers the body of a child wrapped in plastic in the boot of the car.

As Jessica struggles to discover the identity of the driver, a thin trail leads her first to a set of clothes buried in the woods and then to a list of children’s names abandoned in an allotment shed.

With the winter chill setting in and parents looking for answers, Jessica must find out who has been spying on local children, and how this connects to a case that has been unsolved for 14 years.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK (JESSICA DANIEL SEASON 1, BOOK 3)

Someone has left a severed hand in the centre of Manchester and the only clue Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has to go on is CCTV footage of a woman in a long black robe placing it carefully on the ground.

With a lengthy missing persons list and frantic families wondering if the body part could belong to their absent loved ones, the detective has plenty to deal with – and that’s before a detached finger arrives for her in the post.

By the time a second hand is found and a local MP’s wife goes missing, Jessica is left struggling to find out who the appendages belong to, how they are connected and just what the mysterious woman in black has to do with it all.

AS IF BY MAGIC (A KINDLE EXCLUSIVE)

After finding an abandoned package at Manchester’s Piccadilly Station, Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has two choices. One option leads to the entire north west transport network grinding to a halt – and more importantly Jessica missing her train – the other involves her opening the box.

For Jessica, the choice is clear – but what’s in the box, who left it, and how will it affect her weekend away?

This 50,000-word “half-book” was released to celebrate the one-year anniversary of UK no.1 bestselling novel Locked In being released. It contains a bonus features section, with scans of the original hand-written plot outline and the full first chapter of Think Of The Children (Jessica Daniel book four).

It can be read standalone, or as part of the rest of the Jessica Daniel series.

This is currently an Amazon Kindle exclusive.
Buy UK Kindle or USA

VIGILANTE (Jessica Daniel Season 1, Book 2)

Dead bodies are piling up for Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel.

Usually when a serial killer is on the loose, the pressure would be building to find the perpetrator but the victims are all hardened criminals themselves.

The national media can’t believe their luck with an apparent vigilante on the streets, while Jessica’s new boss seems grateful someone else is doing their job for them.

Things aren’t so straightforward though when forensics matches blood from the apparent killer to a man already behind bars.

LOCKED IN | THE KILLER INSIDE (US title) (JESSICA DANIEL SEASON 1, BOOK 1)

When a body is found in a locked house, Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is left to not only find the killer but discover how they got in and out.

With little in the way of leads and a journalist that seems to know more about the case than she does, Jessica is already feeling the pressure and that’s before a second body shows up in identical circumstances to the first.

How can a murderer get to victims in seemingly impossible situations and what, if anything, links the bodies?